By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced that it had ruled out going into coalition governments with the ANC and the EFF.
During a virtual press briefing following a meeting of its Federal Executive on Sunday, DA leader John Steenhuisen said: “It is not the DA’s role to save the ANC. It’s not what our voters want; it’s not what the DA stands for as a party.”
He added that the DA were the real kingmakers and the alternative to the ANC because of the size of the party and that it managed to retain its position after the municipal elections as the second biggest party in terms of votes.
“As the DA, we have recommitted ourselves to further weakening the ANC over the two years ahead of the 2024 elections, but more importantly, we want to bring them below 50% in those elections and to that effect, we will not be entering into any coalition agreements with the EFF, the ANC and any other party that does not subscribe to constitutionalism, the rule of law, a social market economy and a capable state and non-racism. These are non-negotiables for the DA.”
The opposition party is fighting to boot the ANC from controlling major metros, especially in Johannesburg.
DA is also set to approach the African Independent Congress (AIC), Al Jama-ah, Congress of the People (Cope), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and United Democratic Movement (UDM) – all of whom were in coalition with the ANC under the administration that just came to an end.
“The strategy is to isolate ActionSA, go after all the smaller parties and leave Mashaba’s new party with no one to turn to. Given that Action SA has already shut the door on an ANC alliance, they will then be left with not enough numbers and forced to join forces with the DA under the party’s terms, which is the plan after all.”